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Re: The nil Value of Negative Critique
| quote: | Originally posted by EddieZilker
Okay.
There is some music that is never going to be any good.
Even the people who make it aren't that thrilled about the outcome.
Robert Smith doing Frank Sinatra covers will never be marketable.
My point is that someone bashing one form of music is doing so in order to promote what they think it should be, and therefore, what it is not. Someone who extols its virtues appreciates it for what it is. The person who is bashing a style and/or genre has no capacity to appreciate what they're bashing because they either will not or cannot conceive of anything that ought to exist outside their own particular tastes.
I dislike the Jonas Brothers. From what I've heard, their music is sonic pulp-fiction; a throw-back to Bubble Gum Pop with a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon to give it a little psuedo-hipster zazz. Of course, I have no way of appreciating their music, either. I'm not a teen-aged girl looking for edgy yet non-threatening males to identify with the neurotic longing and inner-turmoil associated with emerging into the world with a negligible degree of actual autonomy. If I liked the Jonas Brothers, I might also be eager for the emancipation from my over-protective parents while I clung to the innocence of child-hood teddy-bear collections. I would be hoping to catch that glimpse of true beauty and chivalry from any number of pubescent suitors, most of whom are just trying to relieve their imperious itch with all the finesse of a male chihuahua trying to seed female doberman pincer.
If I, however, start writing, profusely, about how I dislike the Jonas Brothers because their music has a wince-inducing, saccharine quality, what I'm really saying, in addition to a very cloaked admission that I am an immature male who lacks the capacity to relate with women his own age, is that I would rather like the Jonas Brothers if they wrote music which appealed to my tastes and preferences. Ergo, I am lashing out against them in order to promote what I want. I would have to believe, no matter how much I denied it, that there was some intrinsic value to their music which could be refined to suit my tastes. Regardless, I am lashing out at the Jonas Brothers because they are something which never will be.
Minimalism is not trying to be anything other than what it is. Euphoric Trance isn't ever going to want to "tone it down" a notch. To bash one form over another is fool-hardy. Only if you can appreciate something for what it is trying to be, can you offer some sort of qualified criticism, good or bad, based upon what it actually is. If you can't appreciate it, then don't listen to it. You certainly shouldn't expect someone who thinks it's free-based excellence to see your point of view. In the end, our choices in music are more about satisfying psychological wants and needs than about what is actually, musically better.
If it were about choosing what is musically better, then everyone would like Charles Mingus.  |
you just have to consider that a lot of people listen to music not because they really like the music itself but because they are attached to emotions and thoughts that are associated with it due to cultural conditioning, group behavior, and experience.
also, I firmly believe that most people wouldn't be stuck in these musical ruts if they were just exposed to other kinds of music.
not enough people listen to mingus, but if they did I'm sure they'd appreciate him. That said, because of certain social preconditions that I described above, some people will be turned off by it without even really hearing the music.
I feel that people come along a continuum - basically you have materialists/extroverts who tend to reflect 'vibes' without really taking them in, and you have immaterialists/introverts who receive and resonate with these 'vibes'. Some people just don't feel the vibes. By 'vibe' i mean the energetic vibration which is the essence of music. The only level at which they can appreciate music is on the surface, that is, how popular it is, how fun the parties are, how hot the singer is, or maybe some sort of cultural connection like the angsty teenage girl thing you highlighted
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